DA re-opens investigation into alleged eavesdropping at King City City Hall.

The District Attorney's investigation into alleged eavesdropping at King City City Hall is back in action, thanks to notes to previous city managers with instructions on how to eavesdrop on employees. 

The notes surfaced months after DA investigators looked into alleged eavesdropping by City Manager Michael Powers; Powers has denied even knowing how to use the City Hall phone system to listen in to employees, or having any reason to do so. 

An investigation by the city's phone service provider, the Maynard Group, showed no evidence of wrongdoing. However, an investigation by a similar service provider conducted by DA investigators showed that it would be possible to tune in to another call in City Hall. 

Technician Don Vaccarezza of Monterey Bay Telecome joined DA investigators at City Hall to analyze the phone system. 

"We wanted to see if you could intercom an extension and leave the mic open," Vaccarezza says. "We were able to do that. Any phone in that system would have that capability, as far as we know."

Maynard Group found that Powers' phone does indeed have microphone capabilities that would let him use the phone as a listening device to overhear conversations elsewhere in City Hall and the Police Department next door, but that function was not enabled at the time of inspection. The company's report, requested by City Council, exonerated Powers. 

The new evidence is notes, written by administrators in City Hall to predecessors of Powers, explaining how to enable to microphone function. Powers came on as the top city staffer in 2006. 

"We were going to let [the investigation] drop, but with this new information, we're going to pursue it and see what these note-writers knew," Deputy DA Douglas Matheson says. 

According to a search warrant served on Power on May 16, "Investigators believe that Powers has the ability to remotely access the microphone on telephones located throughout KCPD, specifically [Acting] Chief [Dennis] Hegwood's office. Powers has the ability to activate and to surreptitiously listen in on conversations." 

Powers wrote an open letter to King City residents after the search warrant was first made public. 

"I never intentionally tried to listen in to a conversation on the phone or other devices," he wrote.